It could be seen as adding insult to injury.
As state teachers face layoffs under Gov. Chris Gregoire’s budget plan, some education reform groups now want to alter who would get the pink slip.
Why now? The backers say this is the crucial time to alter the traditional – and collectively bargained – seniority-based layoff rules. Otherwise, good teachers who suffer from a lack of seniority might be jettisoned while less-competent teachers stick around.
The current system is transparent and clear. But it hits struggling schools harder as they already suffer from high turnover among teachers and tend to get the newest teachers.
A bill proposed by Excellent Schools Now – a coalition of 32 organizations including Stand for Children, The League of Education Voters, the Washington State PTA and the Black Education Strategy Roundtable – would require the use of teacher evaluations to govern layoffs. Seniority would only break ties between equally evaluated teachers.
The House bill is expected to be sponsored by Rep. Eric Pettigrew, D-Seattle. The Senate version, Senate Bill 5399, is sponsored by Sen. Rodney Tom, D-Medina, and has a bipartisan group of cosponsors.
But while the immediate threat of layoffs is the impetus, it is unlikely any changes could take place very quickly. Even if the bill passes, a big if given the influence of the Washington Education Association with Democratic leadership, it would apply only to future contracts.
The other problem is that creating new and more-meaningful evaluations for teachers and principals is very much a work in progress.
Last session’s Senate Bill 6696 requires districts to create four-tier evaluation systems (as opposed to the more-common satisfactory/unsatisfactory systems). And they must include a new batch of factors including student test scores.
But even a handful of pilot evaluation projects haven’t been completed until the end of next school year. And all districts aren’t required to have new systems in place until the 2013-14 school year.
Still, the coalition thinks this is the time to push for the change. And leaders of the coalition say voters support the change. A poll conducted by Davis, Hibbitts and Midghall of Portland of 500 Washington voters found that 56 percent strongly supported and 25 percent somewhat supported basing any layoffs on performance rather than seniority.
“To us, this is about preventing a double whammy of layoffs and having those layoffs done in a way that doesn’t retain our best teachers,” said Shannon Campion, executive director of Stand for Children.
A few districts already have improved evaluation systems and Seattle’s new teacher contract calls for creating one there. But even if the proposed law keeps districts from having to retain the handful of senior teachers who now get unsatisfactory ratings, it would be worth it, Campion said.
The same bill would make another change in the relationship between teachers and school districts. Known as mutual consent, it would require that both the teacher and the principal agree to a school assignment.
While teachers couldn’t be forced to take an assignment they didn’t want, principals could veto a transfer of a teacher they didn’t want. Unplaced teachers would eventually go on unpaid leave.
The point is to prevent districts from moving poor-performing teachers around from school to school – a practice derisively known as the dance of the lemons. And a version of it is included in the recent Seattle schools contract, applying only to the lowest-performing schools.
The coalition poll, paid for by Partnership for Learning, showed that 42 percent strongly agree with the concept and 34 percent somewhat agree.
At the coalition’s luncheon last week, Baltimore schools Superintendent Andre Alonso said reforms in his district include mutual consent.
“We don’t force teachers into schools unless they want to go there and the principal wants them there,” Alonso said.
“Of course it is a hard conversation about why nobody wants some teachers,” Alonso said. He blames past administrators who cleared those teachers for tenure.
“Tenure should be a validation of quality,” he said.
Peter Callaghan: 253-597-8657 peter.callaghan@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/politics
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